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Elliott Fox Portfolio 3 English 103 - Section 2

**Final Draft: Consumer Mentality**
Over the course of the past century or so, consumer culture has been continually moving into a more prevalent position in American culture. Our increasing drive to consume has arguably been a wonderful direction for society, providing greater **stability** and material prosperity through economic growth. As this paper will show however, stability and growth are not the only consequences of this transition; in the novel //Brave New World//, Aldous Huxley presents the likely consequence of a completely dominant consumer culture: a world in which consumption is stressed to the maximum through extreme techniques of propaganda. If we give some credit to Huxley’s prophetic vision, then consumerism may well influence society in negative ways as well. The mentality of Americans today is clearly not as extreme as Huxley’s depiction of a generation in the distant future, but our growing compulsion to consume has undoubtedly had a vast influence on our minds and lifestyles.

In //Brave New World//, the world state is predominantly defined by a single characteristic: stability. Stability is the primary goal of the “world controllers”, and is indeed achieved through varying methods of extreme social control; most notably through creating a general compulsion to consume among the masses. From infancy, the citizens of the new world state have been conditioned to consume: to always buy more, to never fix but to always throw away and replace. The result is a people that know very little pleasure in life other than the kind that comes through spending. For amusement, the population prefers expensive hobbies that require copious amounts of equipment and accessories such as “centrifugal bumble puppy” and “electro-magnetic golf”. While today many find great joy in life's simple pleasures, this practice is neither encouraged nor desired in Huxley's world. When Bernard attempts to show Lenina the intrinsic value of the sea and the solidarity that it offers, she only becomes agitated and confused (Chapter 6). An inhabitant of the world state, Bernard being an exception, manifestly could not be expected to appreciate natural beauty or value, since it costs nothing to appreciate. As peculiar as this way of life sounds, the citizens of the world state live incomparably satisfying and secure lives. On the opposite end of this spectrum is John Savage, the man from an entirely different culture which places great value on self-sacrifice and growth through maturity. Savage, for the purposes of this discussion, is representative of the antithesis to the world state, a rebel to the common consumption mentality. As for the rest of society, the tremendous amount of "consumption conditioning" which they undergo has effectively created a world in which agitation has no part, because the people know very little hardship or distress; any desires can be satisfied by a quick trip to the store.

It would seem, upon first glance, that the "Brave New World" bears very little resemblance to the one in which we now live, and to be sure, the two are quite different. Upon further examination however, it becomes evident that modern civilization may have more in common with Huxley's imagined world than is first apparent. Indeed, that world might even be considered a distant destination further along the path upon which we are currently embarked. Following this line of reasoning then, the concern for current society should be to what degree consumption is allowed to dominate our lives and frames of mind.

According to Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “Our whole society is geared toward consumption, and our citizens are constantly pushed in that direction" (Masci). Consumption may well rule the economy, as consumer spending is responsible for over two-thirds of economic activity in the United States (Bonner), but it is unclear to what extent it dominates the mentality of the average citizen. Critics of consumerism claim that Americans have in fact become overly-materialistic and as Mark Buchanan states, “…our lives are ruled by this need to buy more and better things" (Masci). Many economists, however, see much of the criticism of consumerism as misguided: “...consumers are not brainwashed slaves to shopping but intelligent people who know what they want and usually purchase things they genuinely feel that they need" (Masci).

But in considering that legitimate necessities should form a relatively short list, what then is the source of this genuine need that many have for an infinitely long list of goods? Not unlike the conditioning described in //Brave New World//, advertising has probably had a profound effect on the way in which we view most merchandise. In the novel, hypnopedia is heavily relied upon as an effective means of propaganda distribution: "Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches;", "I do love flying. I do love flying;", "I love new clothes, I love new clothes;", and "You can't consume much if you sit still and read books." These creepy chants have ingrained the virtue of excessive consumer behavior into the citizens of the world state. While sleep teaching seems an alien concept to current consumer culture, advertising today has certainly gone beyond basic product description. Betsy Taylor, President and Founder of the Center for a New American Dream, claims that “the idea that you can buy fulfillment is repeated constantly in the media, like background noise (Masci)". Indeed, much of today’s advertising is established in constant repetition, suggesting the happiness that can be attained from the featured product.

Undeniably, advertising has established this concept in the culture of consumption: the pursuit of happiness through spending. Richard Fox and T.J. Lears provide an accurate portrait of the typical advertising scene in //The Culture of Consumption//: "The faces are familiar. An old woman, a middle-aged man, and a young girl - white, respectable, and neighborly. Their upturned heads meet a shaft of providential sunlight, and in their arms they clutch neatly bound packages" (Fox and Lears ix). This standard scenario should indeed be familiar to all. Whether it is a happy family on a beautiful day with some recreational product, or a beautiful woman using a type of shampoo these characters depict the "...ideal American consumers" (Fox and Lears ix). The message is skewed yet perfectly clear to the consumer: you can be like the person shown here or the happiness shown here can be yours if you simply purchase this product. John Masci claims, i n "The Consumer Culture", that “Watching all of this advertising, day in and day out, profoundly impacts the way people view the world and their place in it" Likewise, Taylor asserts that "the message is that you are the center of the universe, that you have needs and that you won't be fulfilled until you buy the right product to fill those needs" (Masci). While perhaps not quite to the extent in Aldous Huxley’s world state, it is apparent that the average consumer is beginning to rely more and more heavily on consumption as a primary means of contentment. “People are trying to fulfill all of their needs through consumption,” says Taylor. “This has led us to a situation where we are increasingly focused on acquisition as our primary goal in life, and that's sad" (Masci). In //Brave New World//, the masses actually do attempt to achieve full satisfaction through consumption. By comparison, in the current state of humanity, we attempt to fulfill many - but not all of our desires through consumption, but this ever-growing tendency could suggest that we may well be on a similar path.

More alarmingly, consumers are beginning to not only seek happiness through goods, but also self-expression. If a person cultivates an interest for music, art, a sport, etc., and finds it be a good form of expression, then we would expect the individual to expand on that interest in a way that nurtures his creative aptitude. This process may be in danger however, by a new generation of consumers that find self-definition in various goods rather than through personal growth and maturity. Hope Schau, in “Consumer Imagination, Identity, and Self- Expression”, provides an exceptional depiction of the complex relationship between the consumer and his identity: Consumers are social actors who use ideas, images, symbols, and commercial products to (re)configure into meaningful identity projects. Every consumer, alone and/or in conjunction with reference groups, aspires to locate the self(ves) within the socio- material world by aligning their identity(ies) with certain objects and practices, while simultaneously distancing their identity(ies) from others. As Fisk contends, "commodities are not just objects of economic exchange; they are goods to think with, goods to speak wth(sic) (“consumer imagination”). Critics of consumerism claim that this mentality has caused us to value what we do own less: "We need to recapture the 'sacredness' of things, Mark Buchanan claims, “to appreciate the things we already have and not constantly be lusting after something more (Masci).” This critique of modern-day American culture can easily be compared to the culture of "Brave New World", where acquiring new goods is seen as much more desirable than preserving old ones ("ending is better than mending"). Our lust for more may be supplementing the economy, but resulting in diminishing contentment and incurable dissatisfaction with our current state of being on the individual level.

Consumer culture has, at some point, made a marked transformation from a means of entertainment and necessity to a way of life and self-expression. While increased consumerism has offered increased stability and economic growth, these benefits may come at the cost of our own genuine uniqueness. The resulting mentality of materialism may have more dire consequences than one might think if an increasing amount of people reason that it is easier to seek fulfillment and identity through consumer goods than through the trying process of personal growth and talent development. All things considered, might it be possible that the John Savages of the world, those who value creativity, maturity, and art, are becoming an endangered species in this brave new world of consumer obsession?

Word Count: 1, 654

**Works Consulted**
Cross, Gary. //An All Consuming Century//. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

McClellan, Grant S. //The Consuming Public//. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1968.

Annotated Bibliography
Cross, Gary. //An All Consuming Century//. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Cross presents the effect that increased consumption in the last century has had on the relationship between people and their preferences. The thesis of the book is that consumerism has provided a more stable, popular dogma for public life. The author does analyze the problematic aspects of such a societal ideology though, including the negative impact of “goods” on personal relationships and general well-being. The thesis does state that consumerism has provided a more stable way of life, but Cross does not necessarily seem to imply that it has been entirely beneficial. In fact, he advocates ways of curtailing our consumer-obsessed tendencies, such as public policy regulation.

Fox, Richard Wightman, Lears, T.J. Jackson. //The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays In// //American History//, 1880-1980. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. This book examines the ideology of consumption from a variety of angles. The compulsion to consume is discussed in the context of therapy, culture, intellectualism, politics, and technology. From an objective standpoint, the authors provide relevant evidence to explain the effect that advertising and general promotion has had on life in the United States. From "mass-market" magazines, to the therapeutic connotations of consumption, to the U.S. Manned Space Program, advertising and propaganda is analyzed using many different examples. Propaganda for instance, has been widely used in the political arena, in which the authors claim that voters are "bought and sold". //The Culture of Consumption// studies consumption as its title suggests, as an entire culture with widespread associations.

McClellan, Grant S. //The Consuming Public//. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1968. The text, while fairly old, provides an insightful discussion on the roles of both the government and the citizens as the protector and the consumers, respectively. On the consumer side, McClellan relates the implications of being a high-income consumer to a relatively lower-income consumer. On the other side of the relationship, he asserts that the government acts as a sort of referee, monitoring economic activity through federal programs and direct regulation. The notion of convergence in consumption is also introduced, which essentially focuses on the tendency of people to buy similar goods within their socioeconomic class. McClellan claims that consumption has created an odd sort of bond among the public, a phenomenon he terms as a “consumption community”. This view is useful in terms of society’s perceptions of wealth and well-being, particularly in context of the author's discussion of propaganda in advertising.

**Third Draft:**
Over the course of the past century or so, consumer culture has been continually moving into a more prevalent position in American culture. Our increasing drive to consume has arguably been a wonderful direction for society, providing greater stability and material prosperity through economic growth. As we will see however, stability and growth are not the only consequences of this transition; Aldous Huxley, in the novel //Brave New World//, presents the likely consequence of a completely dominant consumer culture: a world in which consumption is stressed to the maximum through extreme techniques of propaganda. If we give some credit to Huxley’s prophetic vision, then consumerism may well influence society in negative ways as well. The mentality of Americans today is clearly not as extreme as Huxley’s depiction of a generation in the distant future, but our growing compulsion to consume has undoubtedly had a vast influence on our minds and lifestyles.

In //Brave New World//, the world state is predominantly defined by a single characteristic: stability. Stability is the primary goal of the “world controllers”, and is indeed achieved through varying methods of extreme social control; most notably through creating a general compulsion to consume among the masses. From infancy, the citizens of the new world state have been conditioned to consume: to always buy more, to never fix but to always throw away and replace. The result is a people that knows very little pleasure in life other than the kind that comes through spending. For amusement, the population prefers expensive hobbies that require copious amounts of equipment and accessories such as “centrifugal bumble puppy” and “electro-magnetic golf”. Enjoying life's simple pleasures, which many currently find great joy in, is neither encouraged nor desired. When Bernard attempts to show Lenina the intrinsic value of the sea and the solidarity that it offers, she only becomes agitated and confused (Chapter 6). An inhabitant of the world state, Bernard being an exception, manifestly could not be expected to appreciate natural beauty or value, since it costs nothing to appreciate. As peculiar a way of life as this sounds, the citizens of the world state live incomparably satisfying and secure lives. The tremendous amount of conditioning which they undergo to encourage widespread consumption has effectively created a society in which agitation has no part, because the people know very little hardship or distress; any desires can be satisfied by a quick trip to the store. On the opposite end of this spectrum is John Savage, the man from an entirely different culture which places great value on self-sacrifice and growth through maturity. Savage, for our purposes, is representative of the antithesis to the world state.

It would seem, upon first glance, that the "Brave New World" bears very little resemblance to the one in which we now live, and to be sure, the two are quite different. Upon further examination however, it becomes evident that modern civilization may have more in common with Huxley's imagined world than is first apparent. Indeed, that world might even be considered a step further down the path upon which we are currently embarked. Following this line of reasoning then, the concern for current society should be to what degree consumption is allowed to dominate our lives and frames of mind.

Well, according to Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “Our whole society is geared toward consumption, and our citizens are constantly pushed in that direction (Masci)”. Consumption may well rule the economy, as consumer spending is responsible for over two-thirds of economic activity in the United States (Bonner), but it is unclear to what extent it dominates the mentality of the average citizen. Critics of consumerism claim that Americans have in fact become overly-materialistic and as Mark Buchanan states, “…our lives are ruled by this need to buy more and better things (Masci)”. Many economists, however, see much of the criticism of consumerism as misguided: “...consumers are not brainwashed slaves to shopping but intelligent people who know what they want and usually purchase things they genuinely feel that they need (Masci)”.

Perhaps a modification of our question is in order then. Considering that genuine necessities should form a relatively short list, what is the source of this genuine need that many have for an infinitely long list of goods? Not unlike the conditioning described in //Brave New World//, advertising has probably had a profound effect on the way in which we view most merchandise. In the novel, hypnopedia is heavily relied upon as an effective means of propaganda distribution: "Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches;", "I do love flying. I do love flying.", "I love new clothes, I love new clothes", and "You can't consume much if you sit still and read books." These creepy chants have ingrained the virtue of excessive consumer behavior into the citizens of the world state. While sleep teaching seems a far off concept to current consumer culture, advertising today has certainly gone beyond basic product description. Betsy Taylor, President and Founder of the Center for a New American Dream, claims that “the idea that you can buy fulfillment is repeated constantly in the media, like background noise”. Indeed, much of today’s advertising is established in constant repetition, telling us of the happiness that can be attained from the featured product.

Undeniably, advertising has established this concept in the culture of consumption: the pursuit of happiness through spending. Richard Fox and T.J. Lears provide an accurate portrait of the typical advertising scene in //The Culture of Consumption//: "The faces are familiar. An old woman, a middle-aged man, and a young girl - white, respectable, and neighborly. Their upturned heads meet a shaft of providential sunlight, and in their arms they clutch neatly bound packages (Fox and Lears ix)". This standard scenario should indeed be familiar to all. Whether it be a happy family on a beautiful day with some recreational product, or a beautiful woman using a type of shampoo these characters depict the "...ideal American consumers (Fox and Lears ix)." The message is skewed yet perfectly clear to the consumer: you can be like the person shown here or the happiness shown here can be yours if you simply purchase this product. Taylor claims that “Watching all of this advertising, day in and day out, profoundly impacts the way people view the world and their place in it, these critics say. ‘The message is that you are the center of the universe, that you have needs and that you won't be fulfilled until you buy the right product to fill those needs, (Masci).” While perhaps not quite to the extent in Aldous Huxley’s world state, it is apparent that the average consumer is beginning to rely more and more heavily on consumption as a primary means of contentment. “People are trying to fulfill all of their needs through consumption,” says Taylor. “This has led us to a situation where we are increasingly focused on acquisition as our primary goal in life, and that's sad (Masci).” In //Brave New World//, the masses actually do attempt to achieve full satisfaction through consumption. By comparison, in the current state of humanity, we attempt to fulfill many - but not all of our desires through consumption, but this ever-growing tendency could suggest that we may well be on a similar path.

More alarmingly, consumers are beginning to not only seek happiness through goods, but also self-expression. If a person cultivates an interest for music, art, a sport, etc., and finds it be a good form of expression, the we would expect the individual to expand on that interest in a way that nurtures his creative aptitude. This process may be in danger however, by a new generation of consumers that find self-definition in various goods rather than through personal growth and maturity. Hope Schau, in “Consumer Imagination, Identity, and Self- Expression”, provides an exceptional depiction of the complex relationship between the consumer and his identity: Consumers are social actors who use ideas, images, symbols, and commercial products to (re)configure into meaningful identity projects. Every consumer, alone and/or in conjunction with reference groups, aspires to locate the self(ves) within the socio- material world by aligning their identity(ies) with certain objects and practices, while simultaneously distancing their identity(ies) from others. As Fisk contends, "commodities are not just objects of economic exchange; they are goods to think with, goods to speak wth(sic) (“consumer imagination”). But critics of consumerism claim that this mentality has caused us to value what we do own less: "We need to recapture the “sacredness” of things, Mark Buchanan claims, “to appreciate the things we already have and not constantly be lusting after something more.” Our lust for more may be supplementing the economy, but resulting in diminishing contentment and incurable dissatisfaction with our current state of being on the individual level.

Consumer culture has, at some point, made a marked transformation from a means of entertainment and necessity to a way of life and self-expression. While increased consumerism has offered increased stability and economic growth, these benefits may come at the cost of our own genuine uniqueness. The resulting mentality of materialism may have more dire consequences than one might think if an increasing amount of people reason that it is easier to seek fulfillment and identity through consumer goods than through the trying process of personal growth and talent development. Could it be possible that the John Savages of the world, those who value creativity, maturity, and art, are becoming an endangered species in this brave new world of consumer obsession?

**Second Draft:**
Over the course of the past century or so, consumer culture has been continually moving into a more prevalent position in American culture. Our increasing drive to consume has arguably been a wonderful direction for society, providing greater stability and material prosperity through economic growth. As we will see however, stability and growth are not the only consequences of this transition;. Aldous Huxley, in the novel //Brave New World//, presents the likely consequence of a completely dominant consumer culture: a world in which consumption is stressed to the maximum through extreme techniques of propaganda. If we give some credit to Huxley’s prophetic vision, then consumerism may well influence society in negative ways as well. The mentality of Americans today is clearly not as extreme as Huxley’s depiction of a generation in the distant future, but our growing compulsion to consume has undoubtedly had a vast influence on our minds and lifestyles.

In //Brave New World//, the world state is mostly defined by a single characteristic: stability. Stability is the primary goal of the “world controllers”, and is indeed achieved through varying methods of extreme social control; most notably through creating a general compulsion to consume among the masses. From infancy, the citizens of the new world state have been conditioned to consume: to always buy more, to never mend, to always throw away and replace. The result is a people that knows very little pleasure in life other than the kind that comes through spending. For amusement, the population prefers expensive hobbies that require copious amounts of equipment and accessories such as “centrifugal bumble puppy” and “electro-magnetic golf”. Enjoying life's simple pleasures, which many find so much joy in now, is neither encouraged nor desired.When Bernard attempts to show Lenina the intrinsic value of the sea and the solidarity that it offers, she only becomes agitated and confused. An inhabitant of the world state, Bernard being a sole exception, could not be expected to appreciate natural beauty or value, since it costs nothing to appreciate. As peculiar a lifestyle as this sounds, the citizens of the world state live incomparably satisfying and secure lives. The tremendous amount of conditioning to encourage widespread consumption effectively creates a society in which agitation has no part, because the people know very little hardship or distress; any desires can be satisfied by a quick trip to the store.

It would seem that the "Brave New World" bears very little resemblance to the one in which we now live, and to be sure, the two are quite different. Upon further examination however, it becomes evident that modern civilization may have more in common with Huxley's imagined world than is first apparent. Indeed, that world might even be considered a step further down the path upon which we are currently embarked. Following this line of reasoning then, the concern for current society should be to what degree consumption is allowed to dominate our lives and frames of mind.

Well, according to Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “Our whole society is geared toward consumption, and our citizens are constantly pushed in that direction (Masci)”. Consumption may well rule the economy, as consumer spending is responsible for over two-thirds of economic activity in the United States (Bonner), but it is unclear to what extent it dominates the mentality of the average citizen. Critics of consumerism claim that Americans have in fact become overly-materialistic and as Mark Buchanan states, “…our lives are ruled by this need to buy more and better things (Masci)”. Many economists, however, see much of the criticism of consumerism as misguided: “...consumers are not brainwashed slaves to shopping but intelligent people who know what they want and usually purchase things they genuinely feel that they need (Masci)”.

Perhaps a modification of our question is in order then. Considering that genuine necessities should form a relatively short list, what is the source of the genuine need we feel for an infinitely long list of goods? Not unlike the conditioning described in //Brave New World//, advertising has probably had a profound effect on the way in which we view most merchandise. In the novel, hypnopedia is heavily relied upon as an effective means of propaganda distribution: "Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches;", "I do love flying. I do love flying.", "I love new clothes, I love new clothes", and "You can't consume much if you sit still and read books." These creepy chants have ingrained the virtue of excessive consumer behavior into the citizens of the world state. While sleep teaching seems a far off concept to current consumer culture, advertising today has certainly gone beyond basic product description. Betsy Taylor, President and Founder of the Center for a New American Dream, claims that “the idea that you can buy fulfillment is repeated constantly in the media, like background noise”. Indeed, much of today’s advertising is established in constant repetition, craftily implying the happiness that can be attained from the featured product.

Undeniably, advertising has concretely established this concept in the culture of consumption: the pursuit of happiness through spending. The typical staged scenario should be familiar to all: a happy family on a beautiful day with some recreational product, or a beautiful woman using a type of shampoo. The message is skewed yet perfectly clear to the consumer: you can be like the person shown here or the happiness shown here can be yours if you simply purchase this product. Taylor claims that “Watching all of this advertising, day in and day out, profoundly impacts the way people view the world and their place in it, these critics say. ‘The message is that you are the center of the universe, that you have needs and that you won't be fulfilled until you buy the right product to fill those needs, (Masci).” While perhaps not quite to the extent in Aldous Huxley’s world state, it is apparent that the average consumer is beginning to rely more and more heavily on consumption as a primary means of contentment. “People are trying to fulfill all of their needs through consumption,” says Taylor. “This has led us to a situation where we are increasingly focused on acquisition as our primary goal in life, and that's sad (Masci).” In //Brave New World//, the masses actually do attempt to achieve full satisfaction through consumption. In the current state of humanity, we attempt to fulfill many of our desires through consumption, but this growing tendency could suggest that we may well be on a similar path.

Moreover, consumers are beginning to not only seek happiness through goods, but also self-expression. If a person cultivates an interest for music, art, a sport, etc., and finds it be a good form of expression, then it seems obvious that the individual would expand on that interest in a way that nurtures his creative aptitude. This process may be in danger however, by a new generation of consumers that find self-definition in various goods rather than through personal growth and maturity. Hope Schau, in “Consumer Imagination, Identity, and Self- Expression”, provides an exceptional depiction of the complex relationship between the consumer and his identity. -fConsumers are social actors who use ideas, images, symbols, and commercial products to (re)configure into meaningful identity projects. Every consumer, alone and/or in conjunction with reference groups, aspires to locate --the self(ves) within the socio- material world by aligning their identity(ies) with certain objects and practices, while simultaneously distancing their identity(ies) from others. As Fisk contends, "commodities are not just objects --of economic exchange; they are goods to think with, goods to speak wth(sic) (“consumer imagination”). But critics of consumerism claim that this mentality has caused us to value what we do own less: "We need to recapture the “sacredness” of things, Mark Buchanan claims, “to appreciate the things we already have and not constantly be lusting after something more.” Our lust for more may be supplementing the economy, but diminishing contentment and incurable dissatisfaction with our current state of being on the individual level.

Consumer culture has, at some point, made a marked transformation from a means of entertainment and necessity to a way of life and self-expression. But the resulting mentality of materialism may have more dire consequences than one might think if an increasing amount of people reason that it is easier to seek fulfillment and identity through consumer goods than through the trying process of personal growth and talent development. Could it be possible that the John Savages of the world, those who value creativity, maturity, and art, are becoming an endangered species in this increasingly brave new world of consumerism?

**First Draft:**
Over the course of the past century or so, consumption has been continually moving into a more dominant position in American culture. Our increasing drive to consume has arguably been a wonderful direction for society, providing greater stability and material prosperity through economic growth. Stability and growth, however, are not the only consequence of this transition in the typical citizen’s mentality. Aldous Huxley, in the novel //Brave New World//, presents a possible outcome of ultimate consumerism: a world in which consumption is stressed to the maximum through extreme techniques of propaganda. If we give some credit to Huxley’s prophetic vision, then consumerism may well influence society in negative ways as well. The mentality of Americans today, clearly, is not as extreme as Huxley’s depiction for future generations, but our growing compulsion to consume has still undoubtedly had a vast influence on our minds and lifestyles. In //Brave New World//, the world state can be summarized by a single characteristic: stability. Stability is the primary goal of the “world controllers”, and is indeed achieved through varying methods of extreme social control; most notably through creating a general compulsion to consume among the masses. From infancy, the citizens of the new world state have been conditioned to consume: to always buy more, to never mend, to always throw away and replace. The result is a community that knows very little pleasure in life other than the kind that comes through spending. For amusement, the population prefers only expensive hobbies that require copious amounts of equipment and accessories such as “centrifugal bumble puppy” and “electro-magnetic golf”. Finding pleasure in the simple pleasures of life, that people find so much enjoyment in now, is neither encouraged nor desired. As peculiar a lifestyle as this sounds, the citizens of the world state live incomparably satisfying and secure lives. The tremendous conditioning to consume creates a society in which agitation has no part, because the people know very little hardship or distress; any desires can be satisfied by a quick trip to the store. It would certainly seem as though Huxley’s imagined world bears very little resemblance to the one in which we now live, and to be sure, the two are quite different. Upon further examination however, it becomes evident that modern civilization may have more in common with the “Brave New World” than is first apparent. Indeed, that world may even be considered a further step down the path upon which we are currently embarked. The concern for today’s society then, is to what degree consumption is allowed to dominate our lives and frames of mind. Well, according to Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, “Our whole society is geared toward consumption, and our citizens are constantly pushed in that direction (CQ)”. Consumption may well rule the economy, as consumer spending is responsible for over two-thirds of economic activity in the United States (DR), but it is unclear to what extent it controls the mentality of the average citizen. Critics of consumerism claim that Americans have indeed become overly-materialistic and as Mark Buchanan states, “…our lives are ruled by this need to buy more and better things (CQ)”. Many economists, however, see much of the criticism of consumerism as misguided: “They argue that consumers are not brainwashed slaves to shopping but intelligent people who know what they want and usually purchase things they genuinely feel that they need (CQ)”. Perhaps a change of question is in order then. Considering that genuine necessities form a pretty short list, what is the source of this great need we feel for an infinitely long list of goods? Not unlike the conditioning depicted in //Brave New World//, advertising has probably had a profound effect on the way in which we view most merchandise. In the novel, hypnopedia is heavily relied upon as an effective means of propaganda distribution: "Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches;", "I do love flying. I do love flying.", "I love new clothes, I love new clothes" You can't consume much if you sit still and read books." These creepy chants ingrain the virtue of excessive consumer behavior into the citizens of the world state. While sleep teaching seems a far off concept to current consumer culture, advertising today has certainly gone beyond basic product description. Betsy Taylor, President and Founder of the Center for a New American Dream, claims that “the idea that you can buy fulfillment is repeated constantly in the media, like background noise”. Indeed, much of today’s advertising is established in constant repetition, telling us of the happiness that can be attained from the featured product. Unfortunately, this has become a large part of consumer culture through advertising: seeking to achieving happiness through spending. The typical staged scenario should be familiar to all: a happy family on a beautiful day with some recreational product, or a beautiful woman using a type of shampoo. The message is skewed yet perfectly clear to the consumer: you will realize the sort of joy (or become this type of person) depicted here if you simply purchase this product. “Watching all of this advertising, day in and day out, profoundly impacts the way people view the world and their place in it, these critics say. ‘The message is that you are the center of the universe, that you have needs and that you won't be fulfilled until you buy the right product to fill those needs,’ Taylor says (CQ).” While perhaps not quite to the extent in Aldous Huxley’s world state, it is apparent that the average consumer is beginning to rely more and more heavily on consumption as a primary means of contentment. “People are trying to fulfill all of their needs through consumption,” says Taylor of the Center for a New American Dream. “This has led us to a situation where we are increasingly focused on acquisition as our primary goal in life, and that's sad (CQ).” In //Brave New World//, the masses really do attempt to achieve full satisfaction through consumption. In the current state of humanity, we probably attempt to fulfill most of our needs through consumption, but this growing tendency suggests that we may well be on the slippery slope to the world state. Moreover, consumers are beginning to not only seek happiness through goods, but also self-expression. If a person cultivates an interest for music, art, a sport, etc., and finds it be a good form of self-expression, then we would generally think that the individual would expand on that interest in a way that nurtures his creative aptitude. This natural progression may be in danger however, by a new generation of consumers that find definition in various goods rather than through personal growth and maturity. Hope Schau, in “Consumer Imagination, Identity, and Self- Expression”, provides an exceptional depiction of the complex relationship between the consumer and his identity. Consumers are social actors who use ideas, images, symbols, and commercial products to (re)configure into meaningful identity projects. Every consumer, alone and/or in conjunction with reference groups, aspires to locate the self(ves) within the socio- material world by aligning their identity(ies) with certain objects and practices, while simultaneously distancing their identity(ies) from others. As Fisk contends, "commodities are not just objects of economic exchange; they are goods to think with, goods to speak wth(sic) (“consumer imagination”). Goods have, at some point or another, made a clear transformation from objects of entertainment or necessity to entities of self-expression. This transformation marks a gradual replacement pattern: the swapping of talent and creativity for an unnatural sense of fulfillment through consumer goods. Could it be possible that our treasured creative individuals, the artists, the musicians, the intellectuals, are an endangered species?

Brief Freewrite... So, what exactly am I writing about? The main theme of this paper will be consumerism, as in to what degree it dominates society, and what its consequences are. We are clearly more a more consumer oriented society, so what has this mentality replaced? Who knows what amount of creativity, intellectual progress, innovation, and maybe even authentic happiness we have lost amidst our crazed compulsion to buy, buy buy. I am, indeed, a victim to this way of thinking. My research has made more self-aware though, and I hope that this essay provides a thoughtful, clear channel of my ideas and assertions. I really enjoy the educational benefit I get from writing essays like this; research and writing is the best way to learn. You learn a lot, process it, and then express it in a (hopefully) concise, logical manner. Back to the subject: consumerism today and in BNW, what are the similarities/differences? Brief explanation of advertising and propaganda and how it has fueled our conversion to consumerism. Then, the effects of a consumer driven society, and what we may have lost. Here goes.

**Rough Draft**:
I.Introduction ---A. Consumption Mentality Today ---B. Consumption Mentality in BNW ---C. Effect of Consumerism on Society i. as an artificial replacement ii. the individual ---D. Advertising and Propaganda II. Brief Background on the History of Consumerism III. Advertising and Propaganda ---A. effect on the country ---B. effect on the youth IV. Have we become too materialistic? V. What has consumerism ideology replaced? VI. Relation to BNW VII. Consumerism as a positive aspect? A. Responses B. Concluding Thoughts (future generations...) - didn't end up following this too closely!

Revision I. Consumption Mentality in BNW contrasted with Consumption Mentality today II. Advertising and Propaganda II. Effect on Society

//The individual=insignificant cellular component of the greater social body.//

"The Consumer Culture: Are Americans Becoming Too Materialistic?" by David Masci in //CQ Researcher//

excellent discussion of consumer ideology (i.e. why we feel compelled to consume) by the cq researcher. One part of this article that stuck out to me was the overview of the consensus of the nation's chief economists, who find no fault with a consumer-driven country:"consumer spending drives the economy, creating jobs and bringing material prosperity to many millions of Americans". But they key word here is material prosperity. Does this really entail genuine happiness, or a sort of artificial satisfaction created through purchases of the latest gadgets and clothes? The article discusses this...“People are trying to fulfill all of their needs through consumption,” says Taylor of the Center for a New American Dream. “This has led us to a situation where we are increasingly focused on acquisition as our primary goal in life, and that's sad.” and “The message is that you are the center of the universe, that you have needs and that you won't be fulfilled until you buy the right product to fill those needs,”

[|The Percentage of the U.S. Economy Devoted to Consumer Spending Went Up and Up] -- Bill Bonner

[|CONSUMER IMAGINATION, IDENTITY AND SELF-EXPRESSION]



** Relevant Brave New World Excerpts: **
Chapter Three: "Strange," mused the Director, as they turned away, "strange to think that even in Our Ford's day most games were played without more apparatus than a ball or two and a few sticks and perhaps a bit of netting. imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It's madness. Nowadays the Controllers won't approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games."

In the nurseries, the Elementary Class Consciousness lesson was over, the voices were adapting future demand to future industrial supply. "I do love flying," they whispered, "I do love flying, I do love having new clothes, I do love …"

"But old clothes are beastly," continued the untiring whisper. "We always throw away old clothes. Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending, ending is better …"

"Every man, woman and child compelled to consume so much a year. In the interests of industry. The sole result …"

"Government's an affair of sitting, not hitting. You rule with the brains and the buttocks, never with the fists. For example, there was the conscription of consumption."

"Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches; the more stitches …"

"Conscientious objection on an enormous scale. Anything not to consume. Back to nature."

"I do love flying. I do love flying."

"Back to culture. Yes, actually to culture. You can't consume much if you sit still and read books."

"Do I look all right?" Lenina asked. Her jacket was made of bottle green acetate cloth with green viscose fur; at the cuffs and collar.

"Ending is better than mending, ending is better than mending."

Green corduroy shorts and white viscose-woollen stockings turned down below the knee.

"The ethics and philosophy of under-consumption …" "I love new clothes, I love new clothes, I love …" "So essential when there was under-production; but in an age of machines and the fixation of nitrogen–positively a crime against society."

"Stability was practically assured."

Chapter Seven:

"Besides, it never used to be right to mend clothes. Throw them away when they've got holes in them and buy new. 'The more stitches, the less riches.' Isn't that right? Mending's anti-social. But it's all different here. It's like living with lunatics. Everything they do is mad."

Chapter Seventeen:

"Degrade him from what position? As a happy, hard-working, goods-consuming citizen he's perfect. Of course, if you choose some other standard than ours, then perhaps you might say he was degraded. But you've got to stick to one set of postulates. You can't play Electro-magnetic Golf according to the rules of Centrifugal Bumble-puppy."

//Do we define ourselves by our thoughts and actions, or by what we consume?//

A Random Aside... The machine turns, turns and must keep on turning–for ever. It is death if it stands still. A thousand millions scrabbled the crust of the earth. The wheels began to turn. In a hundred and fifty years there were two thousand millions. Stop all the wheels. In a hundred and fifty weeks there are once more only a thousand millions; a thousand thousand thousand men and women have starved to death.Wheels must turn steadily, but cannot turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as steady as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment.(Chapter 2) I wonder if this could be related to the essay we read earlier in the year by Ian Boal, which remembers this quotation from Mario Savio (leader of "free speech movement" at Berkeley): There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, you can't take part. And you've got to put your body upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop.

What exactly is the machine, and what is it turning us into as a people?




 * Post from Blackboard Discussion, referring to Huxley's chapter "The Arts of Selling" from //Brave New World Revisited://**

//The chapter "The Arts of Selling", from Brave New World Revisited, most relates to my research topic of consumerism. I concurred most with Huxley's assertion that propagandists exploit the weaknesses of humans, rather than building on their strengths. From what I gathered from the chapter, this exploitation is performed in two different ways: by playing on ill-founded emotions, or in taking advantage of more simple-minded folks through symbol association. The first method has only political uses; a propagandist for a company selling beauty products couldn't very well market his products by appealing to anger or hatred. Huxley cites Hitler's oratory methods of invoking extremely emotional responses from his audience by his vigorous movements and keywords like "crush" or "ruthless". This certainly relates to current events as well, such as the nations response to the September 11th attacks. This excerpt from the chapter particularly resonated with me: "Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings and actions that make for peace and freedom. Conversely almost nobody wants war or tyranny; but a great many people find an intense pleasure in the thoughts, feelings and ac ftions that make for war and tyranny" // //Strong emotions can indeed be a useful bypass of rational thought.////The other method, symbol-association, is clearly more heavily utilized in terms of consumer propaganda. Huxley introduces the notion that when many of us buy a product, we don't really think we are buying that particular product, but rather the outlandish rewards that are promised with its purchase. Advertising, for instance, has convinced us that when we buy a bottle of shampoo (there are many other examples), we are not just purchasing a hair product that removes oil, dirt, etc, but a a hair product that will cause us to be beautiful, have more friends, be more appealing to the opposite sex, and live a better life in general. We see this shampoo on the shelf, and it reminds of the better lifestyle that it will supposedly allow us to have.////Our obsession with consuming then, is probably heavily rooted in these propaganda techniques. Remembering the first example, propaganda clearly has many applications, and may be responsible for more of our "implanted" mentalities and compulsions.//